Public policy and kidney disease

Decisions made by Congress and federal and state government agencies affect the quality of care that kidney patients receive, the amount of available funding for kidney disease research, and a myriad of other factors that impact the kidney patient experience. The American Kidney Fund continuously monitors regulations, legislation and policy issues that may affect kidney patients and their families. We work with Congress, the administration, federal agencies, and state governments to advance a legislative and regulatory policy agenda that will protect the patients we serve.

Our policy priorities

Our continuous monitoring of federal and state legislative and regulatory activity enables us to identify issues that may affect the patients we serve. With so many ongoing changes to our nation’s health care system, our work in this area has never been more important. These policy priorities guide us in our advocacy work throughout the year, as we work to ensure that Congress, regulators and state legislators understand how new laws or regulations may affect kidney patients. Learn more about our current policy priorities.

Resources and information

Do you want to find information about the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives or your elected state representatives? Are you looking for data or information from the government on end-stage renal disease (ESRD), transplantation or medical research? Use the links below.

Congress.gov. The Library of Congress presents this site, which includes summaries and texts of legislation, links to House and Senate leaders, and has videos on how a bill becomes a law.

United States House of Representatives. See the latest legislation being considered by the House. This site also contains links to individual representatives’ web pages, committee websites and financial disclosure reports.

United States Senate. The U.S. Senate’s website includes links to the legislation on the Senate floor, Senate committee websites, and individual Senators’ home pages.

State legislature websites: You can find the link to your state’s legislature, and from there, you can find your state legislators.

United States Renal Data System. USRDS collects, analyzes, and reports information on chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States and publishes an annual report. You can search the annual report for statistics on demographics, new cases (incidence) and treatment types, Medicare spending on ESRD, primary diagnoses, and much more.